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ForgeRock vs Symantec Privileged Access Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

ForgeRock
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Identity Management (IM) (13th), Access Management (10th), Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) (7th)
Symantec Privileged Access ...
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
Privileged Access Management (PAM) (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Identity and Access Management solutions, they serve different purposes. ForgeRock is designed for Access Management and holds a mindshare of 7.5%, up 6.8% compared to last year.
Symantec Privileged Access Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Privileged Access Management (PAM), holds 1.5% mindshare, down 1.6% since last year.
Access Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ForgeRock7.5%
Microsoft Entra ID24.8%
Auth09.2%
Other58.5%
Access Management
Privileged Access Management (PAM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Symantec Privileged Access Manager1.5%
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager16.3%
Delinea Secret Server7.5%
Other74.7%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmet Murat Ülker - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use, but customizations can be complicated to handle
I would suggest others use the product after asking them to consider their use cases. SSO may be a use case for some, and using the product as an IDM tool may be a use case. At the moment, my company is not deploying all the components of ForgeRock itself. My company uses ForgeRock for OAuth 2.0. For example, my company is not deploying the IDM and identity gateway components. You should consider your use case and select the required components for that use case. My company does not use the SSO features of the tool. My company uses SSO to access ForgeRock's AM Console for individual users. My company does not use single sign on features of the product and instead, we use Auth0. I rate the tool a seven or eight out of ten.
Muzi Lubisi - PeerSpot reviewer
Secure management of sensitive servers and seamless applications with direct linking
The credential injection feature is highly valued, particularly for RDP sessions. A majority of customers use it for RDP, and a couple for Linux servers. The broader capabilities, including access to multiple systems, web-based applications, and clustering, have never posed an issue. The threat analytics aspect is also a robust feature that analyzes all pertinent information.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"ForgeRock is an extensive product with many functionalities and capabilities, much more than many other tools combined."
"The solution integrates well and it is important for them to keep up with the current trends in the market quickly enough, and they have been doing a good job at it."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the authentication for the consumers. The integration with other third-party applications is excellent."
"It works very well, especially in Identity and Access Management. It helps detect anomalies in user behavior patterns."
"We create and define the permissions and configurations for the users."
"Easy to navigate, handle and manage the applications."
"Even though we have very small business interests with them today, they see that we plan on growing drastically over the next two years. Therefore, we have excellent support and we are now at a point where we are not calling tech support. We pick up a phone and call the Account Manager and they'll get everything resolved for us. We don't have to queue along with everybody else and go through a long process."
"The solution is very scalable. We have a lot of users that have been increasing over the years that we have been using it. We have approximately 20,000 users."
"It is simple to implement and is suitable for medium to large-scale enterprises."
"Symantec PAM is easier to deploy compared to its competitors, such as BeyondTrust."
"The system is very stable."
"Stability is solid as a rock."
"The key benefits are we improve our governance. We ensure we can build more trust in the way we run and operate our environment, and most of all is the accountability."
"The product is very scalable in terms of concurrent sessions that it can handle at a time, number of device it can support, accounts that it can manage, or number of nodes that you can deploy in a cluster."
"The interface is very friendly, colorful, and bold."
"CA PAM is working well for us."
 

Cons

"The user interface could be improved as it is cumbersome and outdated. It doesn't have a responsive UI."
"Automatic Deployment needs improvement. it could be made easier."
"The solution could improve by adding more advertising and marketing."
"The identity management model needs a bit of improvement."
"It should have a better user interface. Its flexibility should also be improved. It is not about simplifying; it is more about flexibility. Each company has its own requirements, and ForgeRock can provide more flexibility in terms of the use of existing modules to implement features for the customers."
"The product's customization is a bit complicated."
"I don't think ForgeRock directly supports integrations with Slack, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The solution's deployment should be made easier."
"The setup is complex."
"We experience stability issues after every patch upgrade. This is a place where CA needs to improve drastically."
"An improvement for this solution is that it should not be constantly based on user name and password. There should be a condition to edit and update your username."
"The management console could be improved."
"The service account management functionality needs to be extended to application pools, SQL database, PowerShell scripts, service account discovery, etc."
"The response time for support could be faster. Some features should be added: cloud-based, VPN-less, more secure, and it should be adjusted in a hybrid environment."
"Bring more technology into the portfolio and being able to collapse those products into a much more integrated way."
"Broadcom has neglected product development since acquiring Symantec, and nothing major has been added to PAM."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license is purchased annually per user. However, you can negotiate if you are signing for a longer period of time. When comparing this solution to others on the market it is priced fair, it is not at the top of the price range or at the bottom end."
"The pricing of the solution is fair but I do not have the full details."
"It's a bit pricey and could be more competitive."
"ForgeRock is an expensive solution."
"Its price is comparable to other products in the market."
"ForgeRock's pricing is more competitive than other products."
"We have multiple clients we are looking at right now. We are at a very small number, however, the idea and the goal is to grow. We are looking at about $100,000 and $50,000 a minimum a month cost. That'd be minimum maybe in a couple of years."
"Its licensing is on a yearly basis, but it also depends on the contract that you have with the vendor. They have multiple types of contracts. There are additional costs to the standard licensing fees. If you need some of the features, you have to pay more."
"They offer per-device, per-user, or monthly and yearly licensing models."
"Pricing is fair compared to other top vendors."
"Cost-wise, CA was better compared to others in the market. ​"
"I would prefer better licensing options for the 20-100 users we have at a given time."
"The prices are not low, but one can ask for a discount. It’s not the cheapest PAM solution."
"The licensing is simple and scalable."
"It is reasonably priced."
"The version we are using is affordable compared to BeyondTrust, which is maybe three to four times as expensive, but it depends on the features."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise13
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise30
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ForgeRock?
The most valuable features of ForgeRock are social login and data protection.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ForgeRock?
Our company was considering switching back to Keycloak from ForgeRock, so as to not pay any license fees. ForgeRock also supports M-PIN and biometric features that Keycloak does not provide. My com...
What needs improvement with ForgeRock?
In the past, I saw that Splunk was integrated with a testing portal, and then it was integrated with Slack. I don't think ForgeRock directly supports integrations with Slack, making it an area wher...
What do you like most about Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
We can check the activities in the server for fragile files and documents in case of any issues.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
Due to the nature of the solution, it is hard to gauge, but compared to competitors, the pricing is very good. I would rate it as an eight and a half out of ten.
What needs improvement with Symantec Privileged Access Manager?
Recent releases need improvement in webpage management. For instance, navigating through a webpage that acts like a wizard, where I proceed to the next page and enter more information, is not handl...
 

Also Known As

ForgeRock Identity Platform, ForgeRock OpenIDM
CA PAM, Xceedium Xsuite, CA Privileged Access Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Geico, Thomson Reuters, Salesforce, McKesson, Trinet, SKY, BNP Paribas, Deloitte, Capgemini, North Western University
NEOVERA, Telesis, eSoft
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Okta, Auth0 and others in Access Management. Updated: August 2025.
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